Barry Levin joined the firm in 1979. He currently serves as the Managing Shareholder of the San Francisco office. He also served as Chairman of Heller Ehrman from 1999-2005, as Firmwide Chair of the Litigation Department from 1997 to 1999 and as Chair of the Insurance Recovery Practice Group from 1995 to 1997.

Experience

Mr. Levin focuses on complex litigation, with a special emphasis on insurance coverage matters. His practice primarily involves representing corporate insureds in a variety of coverage matters. He has had significant experience in handling large environmental and toxic tort claims. Mr. Levin served as trial counsel for Johns-Manville Corporation in its coverage litigation involving asbestos-related bodily injury claims, as well as for Syntex (U.S.A.) Inc. in connection with coverage for the cleanup of dioxin contamination in Times Beach, Missouri. He also counsels and litigates in a variety of insurance areas, including patent, copyright and trademark, antitrust, securities, construction, fidelity losses and first-party claims.Mr. Levin is a frequently lecturer in the area of insurance coverage and law firm management.

Representative Engagements

• Represented Hewlett-Packard Corporation in a major first-party property and business interruption claim, pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, arising out of a loss in the market for high end Unix servers.
• Represented Kelly-Moore Paint Company as lead trial counsel in a successful jury trial in San Francisco County Superior Court, seeking insurance coverage for asbestos-related liabilities.  Ultimate recovery is confidential.
• Represented Johns-Manville Corporation as trial counsel in the Coordinated Asbestos Insurance Coverage Actions, involving Johns-Manville’s claims for insurance coverage arising out of its asbestos-related liabilities. We ultimately recovered almost $1 billion on behalf of our client.
• Represented Syntex Corporation as lead trial counsel in connection with claims for insurance coverage arising out of dioxin contamination in Times Beach, Missouri. The claims involved actions both in Missouri and California, as well as a three-month court trial and a five-month jury trial. See Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania v. Syntex Corporation 964 F.2d 829 (8th Cir. 1992).
• Represented Texaco Inc. in an action pending in California in connection with environmental coverage claims arising out of former Texaco operations throughout Canada.
• Represented McCormick & Baxter Creosoting Co. in a major insurance coverage action which resulted in a landmark opinion by the Oregon Supreme Court. See McCormick & Baxter Creosoting Co. v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company 324 Ore. 184 (1996).
• Represented Univar Corporation and Van Waters and Rogers in connection with an insurance coverage action pending in King County, Washington, arising out of claims of alleged environmental contamination.
• Represented Bank of America, N.T. & S.A. in connection with claims for “advertising insurance” insurance coverage. The claims involved parallel actions in both California and Hawaii. See Century Indemnity Co. v. Bank of America, N.T. & S.A., 58 Cal. App. 4th 408 (1997).
• Represented Granite Management Co. (the former First Nationwide Bank) in a series of lawsuits and claims involving insurance coverage for construction deficiency litigation.